Socialist Worker

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Teachers can punish Tories with new strike ballot

Schools in England could be hit by strikes in July if teachers vote for action over the education white paper. The NUT union was set to begin a strike ballot next Monday.

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International Comment Features Reviews What We Think Other

News

Janitors step up strike in Glasgow’s growing revolt

Glasgow janitors working for council-owned firm Cordia escalated their dispute this week with a five-day walkout from Monday.

Can Labour councils defy the Tories' new Housing Bill?

The first housing protest since the Tories’ new Housing and Planning Act became law took place in Islington, north London, last Saturday.

Junior doctors are still up for a fight - but pause threatens momentum

Talks with health secretary Jeremy Hunt came as junior doctors met for their conference. The conference reflected a mood to fight—and possible dangers, reports Tomáš Tengely-Evans

Stand up to the bigots' attack on a woman's right to choose

Right wing rags attacked the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) over abortion this week.

Reports round-up

Refuse workers at Tory-run South Ayrshire council walked out on Thursday of last week. 

Tory splits provide the opportunity of a lifetime

“Tories in meltdown” ran a headline in the Sunday Times newspaper last week. The story said, “As party unity crumbles, Boris Johnson may be back to seize Cameron’s job”.

Solidarity with refugees as Tories pass racist immigration bill

Britain’s draconian immigration controls were tightened last week with the passage of the Tories’ Immigration Act 2016.

Lecturers call for two-day strike over pay, inequality and casualisation

Around 60,000 UCU union members in universities were set to begin a two-day strike on Wednesday of next week. Workers want a decent pay rise and an end to inequality in pay – particularly for women and casualised staff.

Same cops involved in Orgreave and Hillsborough are named

The senior police officers and solicitor involved in South Yorkshire Police’s (SYP) response to the Hillsborough disaster and the Battle of Orgreave have been named.

Welsh strikers win support amid deadlock in Assembly

Workers at the National Museum Wales entered the third week of an all-out strike this week as politicians wrangled over who would lead the Welsh government.

Fast food workers serve up a side-portion of protest at Top Shop

Fast food workers from Britain and New Zealand held a meeting on fighting zero hours’ contracts in London last Saturday.

Labour is missing its chance to hurt the Tories over the EU

It couldn’t be clearer that there is a chance to topple Cameron over the EU vote—but Labour is throwing the chance away. It should be boosting the left exit campaign.

PCS union faces tough choices at conference

Pressing issues face delegates at the PCS union conference this week.

Exiles from Chile protest in London

Chilean exiles and their supporters protested in London last Friday in solidarity with peasants fighting to survive an environmental disaster in southern Chile.

Solid strike by Southern railway train guards was two fingers to bosses' intimidation

Hundreds of trains were cancelled as train guards struck on Wednesday. Bosses want them to bring in more money but the guards fear for passenger safety

Anger among junior doctors at rotten deal—but Hunt can still be beaten

Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt gloated in the House of Commons today, Thursday, that the junior doctors’ dispute “was resolved with a historic agreement.” But many junior doctors are frustrated that the British Medical Association (BMA) and Hunt cobbled together a rotten new deal.

Sheffield food strikers stand firm against pay cuts

Workers at a food producer in Sheffield began a 48 hour strike today, Thursday, with a picket running day and night at the site to turn back lorries.

The Left rallies in London against the EU

Speakers from the international left put the case for a left exit from the European Union at a rally in London yesterday, Wednesday.

Lexit rally in London

Speakers from the international left put the case for a left exit from the European Union at a rally in London yesterday, Wednesday.

French resistance sees blockades, strikes and protests

Blockades, strikes and protests against the French government’s attack on workers’ rights caused huge disruption this week. Workers and activists are out to shut down the economy.

1,000 protest against fracking in Yorkshire

About 1,000 people demonstrated outside County Hall in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, today, Friday against fracking.

Striking library workers and supporters march against cuts in Lewisham

Over 350 people marched against library cuts in Lewisham today, Saturday, as a strike shut four of the south London borough's seven libraries.

Fracking returns to Britain in shameful Ryedale decision

An angry crowd of anti-fracking protestors from around Britain vowed to fight on today, Monday, as Tory-controlled North Yorkshire County Council accepted Barclays-backed Third Energy's application to frack at Kirby Misperton in Ryedale.

Teachers resist cuts, tests and academies

Campaigners told Sadie Robinson the Tories’ retreat doesn’t mean the threat to state schools has gone away

Confront right wing attacks on the NUS

Two student unions have disaffiliated from the National Union of Students (NUS) as part of a campaign to undermine its new left wing leadership.

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International

French workers escalate resistance to Work Law with mass strikes

Road blocks and picket lines went up around ports, oil refineries, industrial estates and distribution centres across France on Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Protest against the mass jailings in Egypt

Over 150 activists seized during the crackdown on the protest movement against Egypt’s sale of its Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia have been given long jail sentences and heavy fines.

Fascist presidential candidate's narrow defeat sends warning from Austria

Norbert Hofer of the fascist Freedom Party (FPO) came within a few thousand votes of becoming Austria’s president in Sunday’s election.

Brazil's new right wing government faces opposition in the streets

In its first days in office, Brazil’s new government led by president Michel Temer has already faced spirited opposition.

Cameron's 'fantastically corrupt' claims hypocritical, says Nigerian socialist

David Cameron’s description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as “fantastically corrupt”, on the sidelines of the bosses’ anti-corruption summit in London last week, was extraordinarily hypocritical.

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Comment

Is the European Union a force to stop wars?

Dave Sewell begins a series on issues raised by the European Union referendum, which will take place on Thursday 23 June

Turkish turnaround can’t last forever

I’ve been in Istanbul participating in the Marxism 2016 festival organised by the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party (DSIP). Turkey's politics has undergone an astonishing reversal over the past year.

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Features

Are robots taking all our jobs?

As robots begin to do more of the jobs traditionally done by people, Tomáš Tengely-Evans asks if the relationship between worker and machine has fundamentally changed

Beating back the blacklisters - why construction workers are fighting on

A group of construction workers has won millions of pounds in compensation from eight construction firms this week.

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Reviews

Everybody Wants Some!! is a coming of age drama that sidesteps the genre’s pitfalls

A film about a college baseball team would normally be painful watching, but Everybody Wants Some!! is a funny ode to growing up, writes Andriana Sotiris

Paul Strand exhibition - Capturing the faces of those unseen

Pioneering American photographer Paul Strand gets the recognition that he richly deserves in this new exhibition.

New Stone Roses single lacks band's original menace

Fans of 90s psychedelic rock band The Stone Roses have waited over twenty years for new material.

Rebellion is a drama that breaks the mold

Netflix’s new drama Rebellion, set during the 1916 Easter Rising, has been greeted with much hype. Some of it is justified.

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What We Think

Moving to the right is no way for Labour to win

Don’t be like Tony Blair—whose war killed a million Iraqis, who lost Labour four million votes, and who paved the way for NHS privatisation.

Shame of thrones - Queen's speech spells out more pain

This week’s queen’s speech will bring more attacks on ordinary people.

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Other Categories

Letters - Apologies aren’t enough for institutional Islamophobia

Police organised a rehearsal of a terrorist attack at the Trafford Centre near Manchester on Tuesday. A man dressed in black played the part of a suicide bomber. He shouted “Allah Akbar!” three times before a simulated explosion.

The things they say

‘Wardrobes painted red and snubbed breakfast.’

The Tory expenses on the bus go round and round

While many an MP likes an expense to claim, it seems a few are less keen on declaring them.

Britain’s brutal Egyptian ally rounds up and jails socialists

Under the dictatorship of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi socialists and the left are bearing the brunt of the crackdown on protest—mobilising international solidarity is crucial, writes Charlie Kimber

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